If You Stay
by Dream from Heart
Summary: All because of my Damon's confession, we had come this far. Life was beautiful. We were happy, though we weren't always at the same page, but we still stuck to each other. After all that's how we are. A DAMON&BELLA ONE-SHOT. INSPIRED by If I Stay - GAYLE FORMAN. ENJOY & REVIEW :)


**Chapter 1: Chapter 1**

 **A/N:- A ONE SHOT BASED ON CONCEPT OF "IF I STAY" BY GAYLE FORMAN.**

 **): I OWN** _ABSOLUTELY_ **NOTHING. :(**

 _ **UPDATED:30 MAY 2016**_

* * *

 _ **A FEW POINTERS BEFORE WE START WITH THE REAL STORY:**_

 _ **EDWARD LEAVES BELLA BECAUSE HIM AND CULLENS WERE TIRED AND BORED OF SAVING HER ALL THE TIME.**_

 _ **RIC DIES FROM BONNIE'S MAGIC WHILE SHE USED IT AGAINST KLAUS WHO HAD POSESSED RIC'S BODY. ALSO RIC WAS BELLA'S UNCLE WHO TOOK CARE OF HER WHEN RENEE DIDN'T UNTIL HE WENT ON RAMPAGE AGAINST VAMPIRE WHO TURNED BELLA'S GODMOTHER ISOBEL.**_

 _ **DAMON IS NOT IN LOVE WITH ELENA. HE HAS HIS FEELINGS BUT HIDES THEM BEHIND ANGER, ALCOHOL AND SARCASM.**_

 _ **STEFAN, ELENA, CAROLINE, BONNIE, TYLER AND JERMEY DON'T TRUST DAMON, THEY THINK HE IS HUNG UP ON KATHERINE AND ELENA ALWAYS MAKES HIM SEEM LIKE HE WANTS HER. BUT IN TRUTH ITS NOT LIKE THAT HE ONLY CARES FOR HER BECAUSE OF HIS YOUNGER BROTHER – STEFAN.**_

* * *

 _ **If You Stay**_

* * *

"Bella I can't do this anymore. I'm tired of saving you. My family is bored too. We're leaving this town and you are going to stay here or moving back to Phoenix, that's your decision but this is the last time you'll ever hear from us. From this day forward, it'll be as if I and my family never existed. Goodbye… Bella." Edward said.

"Wait!" I choked out the word, reaching for him, willing my deadened legs to carry me forward.

I thought he was reaching for me, too. But his cold hands locked around my wrists and pinned them to my sides. He leaned down, and pressed his lips very lightly to my forehead for the briefest instant. My eyes closed.

"Take care of yourself," he breathed, cool against my skin.

There was a light, unnatural breeze. My eyes flashed open. The leaves on a small vine maple shuddered with the gentle wind of his passage.

He was gone.

With shaky legs, ignoring the fact that my action was useless, I followed him into the forest. The evidence of his path had disappeared instantly. There were no footprints, the leaves were still again, but I walked forward without thinking. I could not do anything else. I had to keep moving. If I stopped looking for him, it was over.

Love, life, meaning... over.

I walked and walked. Time made no sense as I pushed slowly through the thick undergrowth. It was hours passing, but also only seconds. Maybe it felt like time had frozen because the forest looked the same no matter how far I went. I started to worry that I was traveling in a circle, a very small circle at that, but I kept going. I stumbled often, and, as it grew darker and darker, I fell often, too.

Finally, I tripped over something - it was black now, I had no idea what caught my foot - and I stayed down. I rolled onto my side, so that I could breathe, and curled up on the wet bracken.

As I lay there, I had a feeling that more time was passing than I realized. I couldn't remember how long it had been since nightfall. Was it always so dark here at night? Surely, as a rule, some little bit of moonlight would filter down through the clouds, through the chinks in the canopy of trees, and find the ground.

Not tonight. Tonight the sky was utterly black. Perhaps there was no moon tonight - a lunar eclipse, a new moon.

A new moon. I shivered, though I wasn't cold.

Sometime later, the rain woke me up. I don't think I'd really fallen asleep; I was just lost in an unthinking stupor, holding with all my strength to the numbness that kept me from realizing what I didn't want to know.

The rain bothered me a little. It was cold. I unwrapped my arms from around my legs to cover my face. I was shrouded in black. I could see, feel, hear nil. I don't know what is happening, I have no sense of time all I can do is lie still and think of him… Edward. His name playing in a loop in my mind until I knew nothing.

Have you ever had one of those dreams where you are searching for something and suddenly you fall, and fall, and fall, and fall endlessly in the dark and no matter how much you flail your hands about, you can't seem to break your fall… out of the blue there is light… blinding light and the dream breaks. You open your eyes and realize it was just that – a dream. But nothing like that happened to me. I woke up and found myself lying on the forest floor, like a dead body – in front of my eyes. I tried touching my body, but I couldn't. I cried, but even my voice was hollow sounding to myself. I was numb – comatose – well my body was. Only one thought repeatedly came to my mind… I'm dead. A spirit walking alone on this planet – a ghost.

It seemed nice. To die – I had no one left to live for – anyway. Charlie was dead, Renee was too busy living her life to care about her good for nothing, awkward, stuck-up daughter. And Ed-Edward had left me – with his family. There was just no point in carrying on with this lone, pointless existence that had looked at me, it's cave like opening looking at me with a voracious hunger.

I felt myself being pulled away… and I didn't put up any struggle… I wanted death. I wanted to float away in the ether, away from all the pain and hurt. Isabella Swan is now dead.

I closed my eyes for the last time. Remembering all the moments of happiness in my life. I was at peace… finally.

"You know what they are? Children. Like lighting a candle's going to make everything okay, or even saying a prayer. Or pretending Elena's not going to end up just like the rest of us murdering vampires. Stupid, delusional, exasperating little children. And I know what you're going to say: 'It makes them feel better, Damon.' So what? For how long? A minute? A day? What difference does it make? Because in the end, when you lose somebody, every candle, every prayer is not going to make up for the fact that the only thing that you have left is a hole in your life where that somebody that you cared about used to be. And a rock with a birthday carved into it... that I'm pretty sure is wrong. So thanks, friend. Thanks for leaving me here to babysit. Because I should be long gone by now. I didn't get the girl, remember? I'm just stuck here fighting my brother and taking care of the kids. You owe me big." The voice was faint, like I was hearing it through a tunnel.

"That's not right." I spoke, surprising myself.

"Hey, you weren't there a second ago." His voice was obnoxious now, so different from what I heard seconds ago. I already yearned for my peace to come back. The voice carried on speaking… endlessly.

Frustrated, I opened my eyes and saw him. A God – no, the Devil himself – dressed in all black.

"I asked your name." He said waiving his hand in front of my face.

"Isabella Marie Swan." I don't know why I told him my full name.

"Isabella, a perfect fit. I'm Damon Salvatore."

I nodded to acknowledge him. I didn't wanted to speak. Looking around, I found myself in a cemetery floating six inches above the ground in front of the grave of Alaric Saltzman, he was mom's step-brother. He was very nice and took care of me until his wife Isobel disappeared. Seeing him six feet under brought me out of my emotion-less coma and I started bawling, now I truly didn't had no one in this world for me.

"Hey, shh…" Damon pulled me to him, but the way he held me was strange as if he had never done it before. I looked up at the breathtaking splendor that his face is.

Black as night hairs, piercing, startlingly-light blue eyes with silver specks in them, high cheekbones, chiseled jaw. Handsome. He is the best specimen of masculine splendor I've ever seen. He was pale, but not overly so like Cul— _them_. If I didn't knew better, I'd say he's a vampire. But no… he isn't, he has blue eyes for a start, not red or gold. He is warm not ice cold, like _them_. He is normal… a human. A drunk as hell human. He was so drunk that he might not even remember me when he will wake up tomorrow after passing out.

On his perfect face, etched was confusion, sadness, betrayal and most of all _pain_. Pain of the kind that that razes you from inside-out. The same I'm going through… by discourtesy of E-Ed-Edward.

"How did you got here?" He asked. Something in me wanted to tell him everything that's happened. It told me that I can trust him with everything and anything. Something in me told me to give into him – wholly.

So, I told him everything. Each and everything. How I got to Forks, how I met _them_ , how I stupidly felled in love with someone who didn't loved me, how I got bitten and saved before turned, how I got dumped in the woods and then how in the blooming hell did I got here… cemetery of Mystic Falls, Virginia to be exact.

"You are having an out-of-body experience. Huh?"

"At least I know what it is, now." I said finally at ease with him.

In the next few hours, we talked some more, he told me everything about his life in the 18th century. To my incredulity, I felt jealous when he explained to me how much he loved that Katherine. Who he later found, had never loved him. Until now that even her doppelganger Elena wants him to be like his goody-two-shoes brother, Stefan.

Now I looked into his eyes again and saw the vulnerability. He only wanted… no he need love, that's all. Sometimes what people get the least is what they need the most. For Damon it was love, unconditional love. I wish I could give it to him. He would then at least have me as his refuge… someone to ease up all the hatred he gets wherever he turns. Someone to give him unconditional love. But I would need time for that. I'm broken. But I will, if that's why all this is happening. If that's why I'm here like this. Or… what if this is the dream? What if I never woke up. Maybe Damon is just a figment of my imagination, who is a darker version of me? What if I wake up right now in my bed in Phoenix, like none of this ever happened? What if…

"What did you say? Let's go to Forks and get you back in your body? Huh?" Damon asked.

"OK." I said. He too wants to dust his hands off of me and my burden as soon as he could.

He without a warning pulled me into his side and picked me up as he started running at speed that was thousands of times faster than Edward ever ran. By sunrise, we were in front of my ghostly pale body. It was exactly like I left it.

"Your heartbeat is very low for normal. You must have slipped into a coma or something." He said while he lifted its head – supporting it. He then tore open vein of his other hand and brought it near my body's mouth. It didn't drink. "Damn it." He said and he hoisted my body on his shoulder and started running. I was floating with him. It was amazing how we could streak through the forests so fast.

By 7 am, we were back in Mystic Falls, at Damon's home. My body was lying on his bed. He was inside the bathroom, getting some warm water and washcloth to clean my dirt-laden body, since I was unable to touch it.

I thought about all the stories I've read and all the movies I've watched on this subject. How one could lie above his/her body and be alive again and get out of it leaving the body. Like putting on and stripping off clothes.

I laid – well floated above my body, in the exact same position it was lying on the bed with. I closed my eyes and taking an unnecessary long breath. I counted till three then unsure I continued till ten. I opened my eyes slowly, rose and found nothing changed. I'm still stuck – outside my own body.

"Smart move there. Though it isn't always the solution to this kind of problems, beautiful." Damon said as he kept the things on the nightstand – I would've blushed if it was possible. He started to disrobe my body to nought. I looked away, afraid to look in his eyes and see disgust in them. I couldn't handle anymore rejections. Unspoken, though it might be.

I heard him whistle. "You know, you are perfect. I must say – someone might think of you as a vampire from a distance. You're too delectable and sweet for a vampire. You must've been quite a heartbreaker." He said in an approving tone.

It gave a teeny-tiny boost to my self confidence. A God/Devil-man like him was saying…"You are sexy." …such words in my praise.

"I've got your body clean, dressed and covered, now try and get back inside it."

"How?" I hadn't a clue. I tried whatever I could think off – slapping myself, pinching me and see if I woke up from this strange dream. I even tried all that people do in the movies, for Christ's sake!

"You can do it... think about it this way. You've gone through so much in less than an year and you are alive. Find the strength, the will, it's inside you, really."

"I can't Damon, he's torn me to pieces, torn my will to pieces." I told him, wracking with sobs.

"You can baby, you can. I know you can. Don't give up. All this game is in your hands alone. No one but you are the only one who can come out of this state… only you can bring yourself out of this."

"I can't I'm trying." I said, shaking my head 'no'. I can't do this. Damon sighed as he stood up and went out of the room. I huddled myself in the corner of the room, sinking to the floor or rather floating a few inches above it. Crying, sobbing, wailing… waiting for the absolute death… or worse… an absolutely lone existence until my body itself dies.

Time passed… maybe a little, maybe a lot, maybe not much, maybe too much. The house was silent apart from sounds of my cries.

* * *

I was frustrated by this girl that I'd grown attached to in such a short time. It was like she's not willing to live.  
In need of some serious liquor, I went downstairs. I heard her crying. It was not a pretty thing. All the time, I wanted to reach back in the room and hold her close, murmur sweet nothings to make her laugh. I wanted to kiss her. I wanted her with me. I wanted her alive. I wanted _her_ … forever.

But that stupid, stubborn, beautiful girl! She's already said she won't succeed, she's not even trying. Like there is no reason left for her to live… maybe she needs to be reminded about all the people who love her all those she loves.

I went inside the room with a new purpose, she wasn't inside the room. I looked in the balcony and saw her floating away from my house… from me. To think I felt everything I did when I found Katherine absent from the tomb only intensified by zillions would be the blackest of the blasphemies to ever trick the mankind. The pain was enough for me to claw my heart out of my chest. The pain was too much that I barely held myself from toppling over on my knees and called out to her.

"Where do you think you are going?"

"Somewhere, anywhere, I don't know."

"Come back inside." She did, the pain decreased exponentially but it was still there. I rubbed at my chest.

I felt her hand at my shoulder… strange she didn't felt so solid before, but I felt her hand. Maybe this we it, she was coming back in her body. The pain, I noticed, was now gone and in its place there were warm and fuzzy feelings in the pit of my stomach.

"Try again Bella, for all those who love you and those whom you love." She gave a humorless chuckle at that.

"Each and every one of those people are either dead or have left me or worse, have mutilated my heart in such ways that I don't love them anymore." She said, her eyes blood shot with all the tears and her voice thick with emotions.

"Please try." For the first time in my existence, I was begging for something.

"I already did." Was her reply. I was desperate for her to come back, her heartbeat wasn't as steady as before, it was stuttering to a near end.

"For me please? If I lose you too, I won't be able survive it." Ric's dead, no one cares for me. This little human here showed up with a scarred heart and yet cares for me and by some dirty works of the Devil or maybe Fate, I might lose her… the thought of it alone was morbid. I will remove my ring and take a stroll in the sun. I can't live without her. Period. But before that, I will kill all those bastard Cullen's who hurt her so much.

There was an all encompassing silence shrouding us, I looked up to see her extended hand starting to fade away. Her heart gave up beating as she faded into nothingness. Her small chest raised once and then collapsed.

At the same moment, everything in me shattered: every wall I had built around my heart, every barrier I constructed to hold back tears, every emotion I caged inside me broke through and gushed out in torrents.

"I promise… if you stay… I'll… I'll be a better person for you. Please stay. If you… if you… stay… Bella, I will love you. Bella, I love you. Bella…" I felled on my knees by her side and held her body's hand with both of mine. My heart screaming for her to come back. My face was wet with tears, my body wracking in sobs.

I sent a prayer to any God up there, to give me my Bella back.

By some miracle, her heart stuttered back to life, she gripped my hand tightly and took in a gasping breath. The new tears that came to my eyes were that of happiness.

"I love you too, Damon." She said and I pulled her into me to hold her against my heart, caressing every part I could reach, reassuring myself that _yes, my Bella is alive and well_. I kissed her wherever I could, but saved her rosebud lips for the last… _home_ , at last.

It was worth it. The kiss. Her. Everything was worth it. All the pain and sufferings I went through in these odd some 174 years. She was worth it all and even more.

* * *

"For me please? If I lose you too, I won't be able survive it."

He wanted me… to come back. He wanted _me_! This ignited a whole lot of feeling in me. It was tingling me from head to toe. I extended my hand toward him to tell him that I will do this for him, if that's the last thing I could do. But no words came, I felt myself being pulled away like a lasso was attached to my stomach I was struggling against it but my vigorous attempts were feeble in front of the formidable Black.

There was blackness all about, but there were sounds, I heard Damon – crying, it didn't suit him.

"I promise… if you stay… I'll… I'll be a better person for you. Please stay. If you… if you… stay… Bella, I will love you. Bella, I love you. Bella…"

A reserve of strength came to me when I heard him say 'I love you.' I fought against the mighty Black and won. I wanted to stay. I wanted him. I wanted it all.

I opened my eyes to reveal Damon, his face drenched in tears.

"I love you too, Damon." I said, reveling in the afterglow of my realization.

He enclosed me in his arms. And kissed me anywhere he could reach then he kissed me on the lips. It was soft, slow but passionate and loving. No one ever kissed me like that, it was heart shattering. He caressed my lower lip with his tongue and I gave him entrance, as soon as our tongues touched, all the pain and sufferings I had endured faded away. I felt free. Airborne, only Damon's grip kept me grounded and not let me float away.

By the time we pulled away, I was straddling his lap on the bed, his hands inside the shirt I was wearing – that he lent to me. my hands were in his silky black locks. I wondered how we got in this position.

We didn't spoke anything, he just put me in bed and using his vampire speed, he was in bed in just a pair of pajamas that matched the shirt I was wearing and held me close, under the covers as I slept with him through the night.

* * *

For the first time in a very long time, I felt peace, happiness, hope but mostly _myself_.

I had kept up the façade of a snarky-sarcastic-ass, for so long, that I felt strange being myself, almost naked. I was uncertain of what life I will have now that the mask has fallen off. Although I will have to do up the mask around others, I needn't hide from my Isabella.

Bella took off my mask, and now I know she can see what was hidden – broken and bruised – behind that mask. And she took care of that just by saying a small sentence: ' I love you too, Damon.'

I love her… it felt weird to say my feeling out loud, but once I did it, I'm feeling so much happy and light-hearted. I can't be without her. She's my everything now. Just under twenty-four hours, she's wormed her was so deep inside my heart that it would be physical pain for me to push her out. And also I intent to keep her there, in my heart… forever at any cost. No matter what it takes.

Bella was a very silent sleeper… for most part of the night but at some point, she started mumbling some unintelligible things which slowly started getting clearer.

"Damon…" I thought she woke up but her heartbeat and deep-even breathing suggested otherwise, yet her voice had been so clear.

"Damon…" she moaned out again, I smiled. _She's dreaming about me._

"I wish you were mine…" _Me too._

"I love you… so much." _I love you too, Bella. More than anything._

"I wish you could agree to marry me." _I would love to…_ _What?_

She was silent for some time. I thought her dream was over. But it was far from it.

"I'm so afraid…"

"Please don't leave." There was so much depression in these words that I could feel the hurt behind them. The rest of the night, she was silent.

I was thinking about what future we could possibly have, together. I knew she loved me but did she loved me enough to let go of that Fucktard? That little nagging feeling at the back of my head told me to stay clear of another heartache. I couldn't avoid that small voice. The night turned into dawn which turned to morning but sleep evaded me, no matter what.

A little fantasy of Bella marrying me started playing in my head. It felt so real that I wished for it to come true. After some more thoughts into the matter, I had an epiphany that made it all right, that made me realize that I can trust Bella with all that I am and for all that she is. I will ask her about the dream later.

Under the weight of that epiphany, I felled into a deep slumber, tucking Bella more closer to myself.

 _Bella is pure at soul and heart not like any other woman on earth. She knows what it felt to be hurt, she will never purposely hurt anyone that way._

* * *

The next morning brought to me, Damon putting a glass of water on the night stand and moving towards the closet from which he took out a shirt and a pair of cut-off jeans that would be a little short for him.

"Wear these for now, later I'm taking you to shopping, mia cara Bella." He said and kissed my head. "Your sleep talking was enough to keep me up all night, thinking."

"What did I say? And what did you thought about all night?" I blushed.

"Get your ass up and about. I'll tell you in the car." He smirked. _Ass – but mine._

"Fine," I huffed and then jumped out of the bed and into the attached bath in his room with the clothes. After a long, relaxing bath I came out wearing the clothes and drying my hairs with one of those fluffy towels in there.

Getting out I could smell a very mouthwatering smell of pancakes that Damon just brought in the room along with a mug of something — I couldn't see.

"Hey I left you some water, you should've taken it cara. And here's the best breakfast in the world you could possibly have. Made by…" he trailed off.

"Damon Salvatore." I completed it for him, and shook my head smiling fondly to myself.

"The one and only." He added and smirked at me. I smirked back at him and dug into the breakfast. It was heavenly delicious with the hot chocolate milk he gave me.

In a few minutes I was on my way to the door when he walked in again and offered me his arm which I took as he escorted me downstairs, like a gentleman he is. There were some people, mostly teenagers were sitting and talking pretty seriously about something.

"Whose your friend, Damon?" a brunette girl asked. Elena?

"She's not a friend." Damon snapped, his guard up.

"OK, but who is she?" a diplomat asked. Maybe Stefan?

"Isabella, my girlfriend." Damon said in tone that clearly meant, he didn't had time for their shit.

"For the week." Added a blonde. She looked like a Barbie.

"Isabella, meet the Scoobies, that's Saint Stefan, Ice Princess Elena, Judge-y little Witch Bonnie, Blonde Bimbo Barbie Caroline and finally Baby Gilbert Jeremy. Scoobies, meet my girlfriend and soon to be wife, Isabella." Damon introduced us.

"Pleasure." I said, blushing and looking at everybody. Damon then took me by the waist and we were in his car – a 1969 Chevy Camaro, blue.

"Soon to be wife. Huh?" I asked him.

"Well, you were mumbling all about marrying me. So I thought, why not make it reality."

"Oh, yeah I remember it now." I blushed like tomato. His hand brushed my cheek.

"You ready to start a new life, with me, dolcezza?" He asked, his eyes shining with something akin to hope and adoration.

"Yes." I said confidently.

"Good let's get this show on the road."

 _~Few Hours Later~_

We drove into the Venetian Palace, got to our room where he pushed me into the wall and kissed me. It was a searing kiss, I wrapped my legs around his waist as we kept on kissing, until I pulled away to catch my breath.

"I love you, mia Bella."

"I love you too, Damon." I kissed him, pouring all my love into that kiss.

This time, he pulled away and moved to my neck, where he sucked at a bundle of nerves. Soon, his teeth joined in and then, I felt the most amazing kind of pleasure, his fangs piercing my flesh and him taking my blood. His hand untangled from my hairs and made their way to the base of his throat, he opened his artery using his nail until it drew blood and then he urged me to drink from him. I complied, his blood tasted amazing, like a mixture of dark chocolate and the sweetness that was Damon. When we pulled away, I felt my bond with him strengthen.

"Get ready soon, we are having our wedding tonight." He placed a bag in front of me, I took it and then made my way to the bathroom, where I changed into the beautiful white wedding gown. I came out to see Damon in a nice tux. I saw some accessories on the bed and knowing what impossible type of person Damon is, I sucked it up and wore them along the deathly platforms he brought with him.

We drove to a chapel, where we got married. And then we made our way back to our hotel room, where Damon carried me over the threshold. We spent the night in each other's arms, making love to each other.

"Good morning, Mrs. Salvatore." Damon whispered in my ear.

"Mmm. It will take some getting used to." I said and Damon kissed me with such passion that had my knees tremble, my toes curl, my heart to race and my eyes to roll back in my head.

"Damon?"

"Yes, dolcezza?"

"I want you to change me."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. But I want to wait till I'm older. I don't want to go to high school forever." I pout.

"As you wish." He kissed away my pout.

* * *

"Happy fifth marriage anniversary, mio caro marito." (my darling husband) I said as I kissed my hubby.

"You to, mia cara, Bella. And a happy third vampire birthday." He said as we got to the balcony of our home, in Italy.

All because of my Damon, we had come this far. Life was beautiful. We were happy, though we weren't always at the same page, but we still stuck to each other. After all that's how we are. That's who we are.

I still sometimes wondered how life would have been if I hadn't followed Edward into the forest. I would have fallen back into his cold arms the moment he showed his face. I was glad that he left me that his family left me. After all they led me to my Damon – to my happiness, my salvation, my love, my life.

* * *

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